This invention relates generally to the worldwide computer network known as the Internet, and more particularly to a method for maximizing the bandwidth on this network.
The Internet has seen expansive growth over the past several years, most notably the user-friendly multimedia portion of this global computer network, known as the World Wide Web. This rapid growth has been driven by two general trends: (i) the general public is becoming more comfortable with computers and how computers, when linked together, can provide vast amounts of information with the point of a mouse or the stroke of a few keys on a home computer; and (ii) large companies are attracted to the World Wide Web as the latest marketing communications forum in which to reach millions of consumers from all over the world with brand new types of database-driven advertising. These two trends have created a perpetual spiral of Internet growth, as more consumers attract more companies, who provide more information and content, which attracts more consumers, and so on.
While the information is easily available on the Internet, it is not without its costs. To connect to the Internet, the use of cables or wiring is necessary. The information is transferred from one computer to another along these cables, which, for the vast majority of users, consist of ordinary copper pair telephone wire. Since copper pair wiring was originally constructed to carry analog voice traffic, the transmission of digital information, otherwise known as downloading or uploading, is subject to great delays in which the user is forced to wait for the information to be transferred to their computers for display. This delay can result in a significant waste of users"" time, and even money if the transmission is subject to an Internet connect or telephone charges. One way to solve these problems is to allow a user to dynamically pre-select the information he/she will want to view in the near feature, and allow the transfer of that data in the background over the connection that remains idle while the user is viewing other data.
The World Wide Web section of the Internet is accessed with the use of known client software called a Web browser (the term xe2x80x9cclientxe2x80x9d is commonly used to describe the user""s computer). All Web browsers use a graphical interface to provide for ease of use. The browser allows the user to connect to computers all over the world via the World Wide Web, which is essentially a collection of so-called xe2x80x9cserverxe2x80x9d computers that utilize the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTP is a well known protocol that provides users access to files or Web pages (consisting of text, graphics, images, video, sound, etc.) using a standard page description language known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Using an HTML-compliant browser, users can access HTML Web pages, by linking to or specifying the address of a page via its computer address, known as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Upon such specification, the browser makes a request to the server identified in the link or address, and receives the requested Web page. There is a time delay between the time the user initiates the link, and the transmission and display of the Web page on the user""s computer. Even with today""s enhanced communication hardware this delay will exist, due to ever-increasing network usage/congestion, and the predominance of telephone connections for accessing the Internet. Once the page is downloaded and displayed, the user then reads the page. Usually, while a user is actually viewing a Web page, the connection between the client and the server remains idle. This idle period can be used to download the next set of Web pages the user will want to view.
The object of the present invention is to reduce or eliminate this time delay by having the user dynamically pre-select Web pages for downloading in the background while he/she is reading another web page. These pre-selected pages are stored in a cache on the hard drive of the user""s computer. When the user is ready to view the next Web page, he/she simply clicks on its title which is presented in a list in the interface of the invention, and the page is instantly retrieved from the hard drive of the user""s computer, thereby significantly reducing or eliminating the wait time (depending on the processing power of the user""s computer to retrieve data from its own hard drive). Additionally, this will lessen the connection costs associated with using the Internet if any such charges are being incurred.
The other objective of this invention is to provide a brand new advertising medium for companies that wish to reach consumers on the Internet. Given that the interface of the invention floats above the browser, it presents itself as a unique and premium location for advertising. Advertisers are able to achieve maximum exposure for their message, since the interface containing their messages remains in the view of all users at all times (as it needs to be ever-present to receive dragged-and-dropped links for background downloading). A user who sees an advertisement in the interface that is of interest can click on the advertisement to go to the Web page of the product/company associated with the advertisement. The advertisements themselves also take advantage of idle connection time, and new advertisements are downloaded to the user""s computer from across the Internet. The advertisements are stored in a head-end computer, containing a sophisticated database controlling which advertisements get delivered to which user""s computers. Each advertisement is transmitted to the user""s computer, is stored momentarily on the user""s hard drive while awaiting a slot in the display schedule, and is then displayed for a fixed period of time in the interface (similar to a television commercial). It is then replaced with the next advertisement which was downloaded from the Internet. The invention monitors the advertising display system, and keeps track of the number of times an advertisement is displayed and the number of times the user responds to (i.e. clicks on) the advertisements. This information is periodically uploaded back to the head-end computer and is used to customize the targeting of subsequent ads according to a profile that is developed for each user. It is these profiles combined with the perpetual display of messages, and the background delivery of advertising, which is unique and extremely powerful for those companies who partake in advertising on the Internet.
The invention is an advertiser-supported interactive Web accelerator. It is a method for maximizing the use of available bandwidth while browsing the World Wide Web section of the Internet, by allowing users to dynamically pre-select content to be viewed next. The method reduces or eliminates the waiting associated with using the World Wide Web. The method utilizes an interface which displays itself in accompaniment with known Web browser software, onto which the user can dynamically select hyperlinks from a Web page displayed in the window of a browser by xe2x80x9cdragging-and-droppingxe2x80x9d them with a pointing device, such as a mouse. This procedure allows for the real-time background downloading of Web pages which the user designates as the next Web pages he/she wants to view, while he/she is viewing other content. These dragged-and-dropped links are downloaded in the background according to a sophisticated schedule of bandwidth priority when the connection between the client and the server is idle, and stored in a cache on the user""s hard drive as Q-Links. The Q-Links stored in the hard drive cache are presented in a list in the interface of the invention. When the user is ready to view the previously selected pages, the user can click on any of the Q-Links in the list, which displays that content directly from hard drive cache to the browser. Since the requested pages now come from the hard drive instead of from across the Internet, the method significantly reduces or eliminates the user""s wait time for downloading.